Category Archives: CO2 Transportation & Storage

There are several carbon capture and storage projects where facilities are capturing and safely storing CO2. These projects include Sleipner, Norway since 1996, Weyburn, Canada since 2000 and Salah, Algeria since 2004. All of these facilities have operated without any incidents whatsoever. Furthermore, over 30 million tons of CO2 have been injected underground for enhanced oil recovery in the United States each year. Located primarily in Texas and Canada, these operations have been working for more than 40 years.

Due to its unique shape and secure geology, extensive geological analysis has identified the Elk Hills Oil Field as one of North America’s premier geologic traps for enhanced oil recovery and permanent CO2 storage. Millions of years ago, oil began migrating to the Elk Hills reservoir, where tiny pore spaces within the domelike structure of the sandstone formation retained oil. The oil has remained underground due to a thick, impenetrable layer of shale thousands of feet thick. HECA’s CO2 will be safely and securely injected 6,000 feet beneath the shale, which is equivalent to four Empire State buildings stacked one on top of the other. The CO2 will push the oil towards the production well, resulting in 5 million additional barrels of domestic oil each year.

HECA’s plant will be designed, constructed and operated to meet or exceed the highest local, state and federal environmental, safety and health standards to protect the public and plant workers. Carbon dioxide has been safely transported via pipeline and pumped underground for 40 years by energy companies around the world, including those in Canada and the United States. In the past, CO2 primarily came from naturally occurring underground reservoirs, where it was transported and then re-injected into oil fields to perform enhanced oil recovery in locations thousands of miles away. The HECA facility will capture CO2 that would have otherwise been emitted into the atmosphere. The CO2 will then be transported five miles away through a safe and secure pipeline to a nearby oil field where the CO2 will be injected over 6,000 feet beneath a layer of thick, impenetrable cap rock.